S.C. truck company has filed a new one

Jan. 10, 2014

Written by

Walter F. Roche Jr.

The Tennessean

A Nashville trucking company has settled a multimillion-dollar lawsuit with Pilot Flying J, but the truck stop chain is facing yet another suit in South Carolina.

Paul Wieck, president of Nashville-based Western Express, said Thursday that the $75 million suit his company filed against Pilot last year has been settled but the terms are confidential.

“They got things fixed,” Wieck said, adding that his company always has regarded Pilot as a good partner.

The Western suit filed in Louisiana state court in New Orleans was one of 16 civil cases pending against Pilot in the aftermath of allegations that Pilot sales executives systematically reduced the rebates promised to trucking firms.

Pilot’s handling of rebates is also the subject of an ongoing federal investigation, and seven of its former executives have entered guilty pleas to mail and wire fraud charges.

While the Western case is resolved, another suit was filed against Pilot this week in U.S. District Court in Greenville, S.C.

The suit, originally filed in South Carolina state court, charges that the trucking firm, Quality Logistics, was a victim of rebate fraud. The complaint charges that Pilot and its sales executives were guilty of breach of contract, unfair trade practices and fraud.

Pilot lawyers reached an $85 million settlement with several trucking firms and that agreement was approved late last year by a federal judge in Little Rock. Ark.